Changes
by Shinigami-chan
Summary: one thing changes everything for Tk, forever
1. p: Death of TK

Digimon  
  
The Death of TK  
  
***************  
  
Prologue  
  
***************  
  
"TK! What do I have to do to convince you that I'm not flirting with Ken?!" Kari exclaimed angrily as she stared at her boyfriend. TK and Kari had finally gotten together a year ago and they had been blissfully happy until he had accused her of flirting with Ken, another digi destined.  
  
"Well, what am I supposed to think? You two have been spending so much time together lately." TK said angrily then stormed away from the park bench Kari was still sitting on.  
  
At sixteen, TK looked a lot like his older brother Matt had at that age and Kari was down right stunning. They were the envy of everyone at school and were the most popular, too.  
  
But lately, he had been getting mysterious notes saying that Kari was double crossing him with Ken. He had never told her about the notes and he was starting to believe them, even though he knew that Kari would never do anything like that to him.  
  
Stopping in the middle of the trail, he realized what an ass he was being and decided to tell her everything. Spinning on his heel, he hurried back in the direction he had come from.  
  
  
  
Kari watched numbly as TK let then sighed. She just didn't understand why he didn't trust her and it really hurt. 'What did I do to deserve this?' she thought as she buried her head in her hands, missing Davis' approach.  
  
"Kari? What's Wrong?" he asked as he stopped in front of her, waited a moment, then sat down next to her.  
  
"Nothing. My life is just a little bit confused right now." She said as she looked over at him.  
  
"You want to talk about it?" he asked and draped an arm across her shoulders, surprising her.  
  
"No, it's ok. Thanks for asking." She said with a small smile. They stayed like this for a moment before he abruptly leaned down and kissed her. She was to surprised to do anything for a moment, but by that time it was already to late. The damage had already been done.  
  
They heard a gasp and she tore her lips away and turned to see TK standing there, a small bouquet of flowers in his hand, staring at the two of them in shock before he dropped the flowers and dashed away in the opposite direction of them.  
  
"TK, wait!" she called after him as she jumped up to go after him, but a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her before she could even take a step.  
  
"Just let him go. He doesn't deserve you." Davis said and Kari slapped him as hard as she could.  
  
As he stumbled back, she snarled, "You just don't get it, do you? I love him and now you've probably just ruined everything. I hate you!" She yelled the last bit before she spun around and ran after TK.  
  
  
  
TK ran into the apartment he shared with his mother and slammed the door to his room. He just couldn't get over the shock of seeing Kari kissing Davis. 'How could she?!' he thought as he grabbed his backpack and started shoving some clothes and supplies into it, then turned on his computer.  
  
As he waited for it to boot up, he grabbed a paper and pen off his desk and scribbled a note, which he placed on his bed for his mother who was at the store. 'I just have to get away for a while. I'll come back someday, but first I really need to get out on my own for a while.'  
  
With that thought firmly in place, he opened the digiport and left the life he had lived for the last sixteen years.  
  
  
  
He quickly went to the digi-world where he used a TV to get near Genni's place. After telling Genni that he wanted to build a house in the digi- world and stay there for a while, Genni enlisted a few digimon who lived near by and they started work on the plans for TK's new house while he began planning his new life.  
  
He wanted to change everything about himself. After the house was finished and furnished, he left the digi-world for a while to visit friends in Nerima, whom he knew could help him  
  
  
  
Arriving at the Tendo Dojo through Nabiki's computer, he greeted the middle Tendo daughter and began to explain why he was there.  
  
"Nabiki, I need yours and Ranma's help. I want to start a new life but I have no one to trust to help me except for you two." He said as he sat on the bed while she stayed seated at the computer.  
  
"You disappeared six months ago. No one could find you and now you pop out of my computer and you want Ranma's help and mine. So what can we do for you? We still owe you for saving us from that monster that attacked two years ago." Nabiki said as she remembered the attack of the Tyranomon that had attacked when the big battle for both worlds was going on. TK had saved them, but hadn't taken anything in repayment.  
  
"I want Ranma to teach me how to fight well enough to fight in the underground rings to earn enough money to get a motorcycle, some new clothes, and still have enough to live on for a while. Do you understand?" he asked and she nodded. Turning towards the door, she yelled down the hall for Ranma.  
  
After explaining things to Ranma, who fought in the underground himself to help support the dojo, he agreed and for the next few months taught TK everything he knew about the martial arts.  
  
TK proved to be a quick study and only had to see things once before he was able to do it himself. Because of his time in the digi-world where he controlled the powers of his crest and digivices, it was simple for him to learn to control his ki and quickly mastered the Moko Takabisha, a blue ball of ki that he shot from his hands, the Hiryuu Shoten Ha or Rising Dragon Ascension Wave where he creates a cyclone from his enemy's hot ki and his calm, cold ki, and the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken, or Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire where he was able to throw up to 500 punches in under two seconds.  
  
During those two months, he had a growth spurt and shot up half a foot, and gained some muscles that filled out his arms, legs, and chest.  
  
Finally, he approached Nabiki and said in a deep tenor voice he had also gained, "Put me in a match. I think I'm ready now."  
  
Nabiki nodded and started placing calls. She had him in his first fight the very next night.  
  
  
  
Nabiki, Ranma, TK, and Ryoga, who sometimes helped with TK's training when he was around, sat close together near the ring while they waited for TK's name to be called.  
  
"So who is my opponent?" TK asked and Nabiki, who had a ton of betting tickets in her hands.  
  
"His name is Nanashi. He's pretty new and has lost a number of fights, but he is still pretty good." She said and he nodded as he started to mentally prepare himself for the fight.  
  
It was called a few minutes later and TK nimbly vaulted into the ring. Across from his was a man about his age. He was tall and pencil thin with dark brown hair that fell across on sparkling blue eye. He was wearing black pants with black silk slippers and had a serious expression on his face.  
  
TK was wearing a sleeveless, black Chinese outfit like the one Ranma wore everyday. His hair was cut so that is stood straight up about 1-½ inches and he wore a black headband with a ying yang symbol on it to keep the sweat out of his eyes during the fight.  
  
Nanashi began the fight with a flying kick at TK as the bell rang. TK dodged out of the way easily and sent a kick to the back of his opponent's head. While Nanashi was stunned, TK grabbed him and slammed him over backwards. Releasing him, TK stood back as the ref checked to see if he was alive. After a moment, the ref stood and declared TK the winner.  
  
"Way to go TK! That was the fastest match all night." Ranma said excitedly as he approached them.  
  
"Thanks, but that was like fighting Akane. He seemed to expect me to stand still and let him kick me." TK said as he straightened his headband.  
  
"Hey! Akane doesn't so that!" Ryoga protested but quieted under the three glares that were turned on him.  
  
"Anyway, who much did I win?" TK asked Nabiki.  
  
"Just from betting alone, we won 500,000 yen and if you win tonight's tournament, we get another 500,000 yen plus anything we win in bets that we place." Nabiki said firmly and he nodded.  
  
"Well then, lets go win that money!" TK cheered and Ranma and Ryoga nodded.  
  
  
  
"I can't believe that I won." TK said as he sat down on the couch at the Tendo dojo.  
  
"I can't believe that we won 7,000,000 yen all together." Nabiki said as she counted out a portion of the money and shoved it in her purse before handing the rest to TK. "Here you go. I took 10%, which leaves you with 6,300,000 yen. Not to bad for either of us."  
  
"Yep, and with a couple more fights like this, I'll be able to do anything that I ever wanted to do." TK said happily.  
  
"Yeah, but what do you want to do with so much money?" Ryoga asked.  
  
"To totally irradiate TK and become someone completely new." TK asked quietly then asked Nabiki if she anything else planned.  
  
"Yeah, and soon you will be someone completely different. Fighting always changes you." She said warningly.  
  
"I've been fighting and saving both worlds since I was seven. Trust me, I won't change that much." He said and excused himself. He went to Nabiki's room and promptly disappeared back into the digi-world.  
  
That was how most of the next year passed. He would live at his home in the digi-world, go to Nerima to either train or fight in the underground tournaments and his money kept growing. In the two years since he had disappeared from his home, none of the digi-destined or any of the digimon with the exception of Angemon who could now stay that was permanently and who was sworn to secrecy.  
  
  
  
****  
  
TBC  
  
Now after these two years, he needed to go see the other digi destined and have them save the digiworld once again. 


	2. ch 1: Arrival of Jared

Digimon  
  
The Arrival of Jared  
  
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Chapter 1  
  
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Matt was playing his guitar in his room as he practiced for his band's concert. After two years they had signed a record deal and they were now known around the world for their music. But all that success was empty for Matt because his brother was still missing.  
  
No one knew what happened to him, but what ever had, had also affected Kari and Davis. Davis had stopped actively chasing Kari, and now he just watched her from afar, not even talking to her anymore. And Kari went from the always happy, out going young girl to an anti social, silent young woman who always wore black. No one understood it and the two remaining wouldn't talk about what happened to anyone, not even their digimon.  
  
Matt had moved out of his father's house the previous year and had gotten an apartment of his own near the music studio that he and his band recorded their songs at. Now, sitting in front of his computer, facing away from the screen, he failed to see as the computer turned on by it's self and a digiport opened.  
  
One second he was practicing a new song, then next he had halfway across the room as something heavy slammed into him from behind. Groaning, he sat up and turned to see…a stranger that had just come from his computer.  
  
Matt was silent for a moment before he yelled, "Who the hell are you?!"  
  
The man was six feet tall, two inches taller than Matt's own 5'10 height, and was buffed out to the max. He had skintight black jeans, black army boots, a black tank top that molded it's self to the stranger's massive chest, and he had a black leather jacket slung over one shoulder. He had a massive black spiked collar that covered almost his entire throat and had black leather bracers on both wrists that went up to mid forearm. There was a tattoo on his upper right arm, but it was partially cover by the jacket so Matt couldn't see it clearly enough to see what it was.  
  
But what surprised Matt was the stranger's eyes and hair. His eyes were purple and shaped like a cat's. His hair was down to chin, but it was green, blue, purple, red, black, and silver patches like a punked out calico cat.  
  
As the man shook some hair out of his eyes, Matt caught sight of four small earrings that marched up the side of his ear. They were all different colors and they were connected to each other with a small silver chain, which was also connected to his collar. Completing the look was a small eyebrow ring with a black ball.  
  
"You don't recognize me Matt?" the man said, amusement clear in his deep voice that almost sounded like a growl.  
  
"Should I? Who are you and how the hell did you get to the digiworld? Only the digi-destined can go there." Matt said as he backed away. He was trying not to show how freaked he was but by the amusement in the stranger's eyes, knew that he was failing.  
  
Ignoring the questions, the man said, "It's been a while, brother."  
  
"Brother? TK?!!!" Matt exclaimed and abruptly collapsed on the couch.  
  
"Don't call me that. TK died two years ago. Call me Jared." He said and Matt nodded, stunned, the snapped out of his shock.  
  
"What the hell happened to you? Mom and dad are going to freak when they see you!"  
  
"Seeing them will have to wait. I didn't come here just to visit. I came because there is a new threat to the digi-world. Genni sent me to get everyone to come back and help."  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
"His name is Chaosmon and I'll explain more when we meet up with the others at the park. Genni contacted them and told them to get to the park as soon as possible."  
  
"Ok. It'll take us a while to get there. I live about ten miles from the park and right now my car is in the shop." Matt said as he stood up.  
  
"I've got it covered. We'll get there pretty fast." Jared said as he headed towards the door with Matt as they both pulled on their jackets.  
  
Once outside, Jared pulled out his D-terminal and punched in a command. Suddenly, a light shot out of the screen and the form of a black Harley Davison appeared on the street.  
  
"I bought it in America and had Genni convert it so that it wouldn't use gas and I could bring it with me where ever I go." He said as he caressed the handle bar lovingly while Matt just gapped at him.  
  
Swinging on, he pulled some Terminator style glasses out of a pocket of his jacket and tossed a black helmet at Matt as he put the glasses on. "Are you coming?" he asked and Matt nodded slowly.  
  
He gingerly got on the bike and buckled the helmet securely under his throat.  
  
"Ya ready?" A Matt's small nod, Jared said with a smile, "Ya better hold on." Kick starting the bike, he peeled out fast enough to leave tire marks on the road.  
  
"Slow dooooooowwwwnnnnnn!" was Matt's plaintive wail.  
  
  
  
"Does any one know why we're here?" Tai asked as he arrived at the park to see everyone except Matt and TK, though no one really expected TK to show up anyway.  
  
"No. Genni didn't say anything about anything, just that it was imperative to be here as soon as possible." Izzy said as he adjusted his tie. He was lunch break from the computer company he worked for.  
  
"Same here. He's just lucky that my classes were canceled today because the school is under inspection." Joe said. He would be graduating med school in another year or two.  
  
Before anyone could say anything else, they heard the sound of a motorcycle racing towards them. Turning they watched as a Harley Davison that had Tai, Davis, and surprisingly, Cody, drooling as it roared towards them. It squealed to a stop next to them and they saw the hugely muscled, punked out driver with a scared half to death, about to fall off, frozen mid-scream, Matt clinging to him.  
  
"Matt!" Tai and the others, except Kari, exclaimed as they rushed up and peeled him off the bike.  
  
"Are you all right? What did you do to him?!" Tai demanded of Jared as he spun around to face him.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Yeah right. Then what happened to him?"  
  
"I guess he doesn't like to go 110 on a motorcycle." Jared said with a smirk as he took off his jacket and glasses and draped them over the handlebars before crossing his massive arms over his chest.  
  
"Who the hell are you?!" Davis demanded as he took in the sight of the hair, eyes, clothes, and muscles.  
  
"It's TK." Kari said in a monotone, gaining surprised looks from all present. For those who had been around for the last two years, it was because of who she said it was and that she actually said something voluntarily.  
  
Jared was staring at her for two reasons too. The first was because he was surprised that she actually recognized him and the second was because he found that he still had some feelings for her. He was also a little surprised with her appearance.  
  
"TK is dead. He died two years ago. Call me Jared." He said as he studied her. Her hair fell slightly past her shoulders and was died black. She was wearing a black mini skirt with a black halter-top and army boots over fishnet stockings. Even her eyes were different. Instead of the warm brown they used to be, now they were the cold hard brown of dirt.  
  
She walked up to him and stared into his eyes for a second before abruptly smacking him across the face. The others gasped in shock, then gasped again as she threw herself at him and kissed him deeply even as he bent down and gathered her closer, her legs lifting automatically to wrap around his waist.  
  
After a minute, he pried her away and put her down on the ground. "That is in the past. Don't even think about trying to start things between us again." He said coldly and turned back to the group, who were stunned, except for Matt, who was still out of it.  
  
"We will be going to the digiworld to talk to Genni so grab your stuff. Izzy, can you open a digiport? Tai, you and Joe see if you can wake Matt up. Davis, Yolie, Cody, Ken, are your digimon here or in the digiworld?" he asked.  
  
"Digiworld. They missed their friends." Cody said softly and Jared nodded.  
  
"Digiport is opened." Izzy said a moment later, just as Tai and Joe woke Matt up finally. By this time, Jared had already gone over to Sora and Mimi and was giving them each a brief hug.  
  
"Hey! TS, what about the bike?" Davis called and everyone immediately backed away from him as they saw Jared's shoulders tense as he turned towards him.  
  
"What did you call me?"  
  
"TD…um, I mean TS…TK I said TK!"  
  
"I told you, TK is dead." Jared said and punched him in the stomach hard enough to send him flying backwards towards Izzy, Joe, Matt, and Tai. He would have crashed into them, but the digiport sucked him in.  
  
Turning to the bike, he retrieved his jacket and sunglasses before absorbing the bike back into the D-terminal. "We need to hurry. Genni is expecting us at my house." He said and pushed the others through. He typed a quick command on Izzy's computer then jumped through himself.  
  
10 seconds after he disappeared, the computer disappeared in a brief flash of light.  
  
  
  
Jared arrived though the TV in his living room, just as the others finished untangling themselves from the heap the others had arrived in. He landed nimbly on his feet and immediately headed towards the communicator on the table near the door.  
  
Pressing a button, a view screen appeared on the wall in front of him with Angemon's face on it. "Hey Angemon, bring the others here." He said and Angemon looked startled.  
  
"But I though you said…"  
  
"Yeah, but it's an emergency and the others are already here."  
  
"Right, be there as soon as I ship us. We'll arrive in the usual place." With that, Angemon's face disappeared and Jared turned back to the others who, with the exception of Genni, were gaping at him. He ignored them and hurried over to a door. Seeing a small flash of light, he opened it and digimon began pouring out.  
  
The first was Angemon who had an arm around the waist of Angewomon. Behind them were Agumon, Tentomon, Gomamon, Gabumon, Palmon, and Biyomon. There was a slight pause before Wormon, Hawkmon, Veemon, and Armadillomon followed.  
  
As the digimon greeted their partners, Genni cleared his throat to get their attention. "It is good to see all of you again, but this is not a social visit. Both worlds are in danger and you are needed again. " he started but Davis interrupted before he could continue.  
  
"You know, we'll help, but I want to know what happened to him!" he said pointing at Jared.  
  
"TK was a wuss. He wasn't capable of doing anything so he was destroyed and Jared took his place. Now, instead of standing by, letting Angemon fight for me and letting everyone else control me, I do it. I control where I go, what I do, and when I do it, and I fight my own battles. And by the way, Davis, while you've been home relaxing, hanging out with your friends, having a normal life, I've been making sure you guys wouldn't have to come back." Jared said as he glared at the group, though his words were aimed at Davis.  
  
"Now the only reason you are here is because Chaosmon is to well protected and to strong for Angemon and me to take care of like we did with the others. So shut up and let Genni talk."  
  
"Thank you, Jared." Genni said. Seeing the he was worked up and slightly tense, though the others didn't realize it, Genni said in a calm voice, "It will take awhile to fill the others in on what has been going on, so why don't you take a ride or take Angemon and spar somewhere."  
  
"Yes. I think that's just what I need. Are you coming, Angemon?" Jared said as he headed for the door. Angemon nodded and followed him out.  
  
Things were silent for a minute after they left before Matt broke the silence.  
  
"How could he change so much?"  
  
"With the right circumstances, anyone can change. You didn't see him the six months it took us to build this house. He completely broke down about a month after he had got here and it took us the next five months to get him to stop thinking about suicide and started to change who he was. He told me once that he went to someplace called Nerima for six months, and then every other day for the next nine months when he was able to, to train in the Anything Goes style of martial arts and to enter tournaments to get money. During one of our long talks, he told me that for the last five months he had been fighting, he has been known as Shinigami, the God of Death, because he always takes them out fast, like death. But the only time any of his opponents died was when the person tripped leaving the ring. Poor guy, broke his neck." Genni said and the others stared at him in shock. Before they could say anything, he got back to the reason they were there.  
  
"Now, the digimon you are going to fight is called Chaosmon, a mega-digimon of the virus type. His attacks include Chaos Confusion, Night Blade Strike, Black Lightning, and many others that we don't know about yet." Genni said grimly as he motioned the others to take seats on the couches and chairs scattered around the room.  
  
After they were seated, he continued. "Basically of what we could find out about his plans, he is planning to use the twelve of you digidestined at take over both worlds. He's already tried with Jared about six months ago, but he was able to fight against Chaosmon to a certain degree until he was able to escape with Angemon's help. He may have managed to escape, but he got a horrible scar from some sort of whip made of fire, as sharp as a sword. I'm not exactly sure what he meant from that description and I've never seen the scar, but Angemon told me it's pretty bad."  
  
"Why wouldn't he have told me any of this? I mean, we've been living together for over a year now and he couldn't tell me that TK, I mean Jared, was here?" Angewomon said softly. "I just don't understand."  
  
"Jared made him promise no to tell anyone. He knew that if any of you found out, you would have told your partners and he just wanted to be left alone." Genni said as he gently patted Angewomon's hand.  
  
"Is there anymore relevant information that we should know?" Izzy asked.  
  
"The only other thing that we know is that his fortress is hidden on Destiny's Peak, and he moves in secret, which is why most of the digiworld is unaware of him. He has an army of digimon under his control, some under mind control and some who willingly follow Genni said and the others nodded.  
  
Just then, they heard a shout and a loud thud from outside. Everyone rushed to the windows just in time to see Angemon jump back to him feet and charge at Jared again. He dodged the spinning back kick and sent an uppercut to Jared's stomach and followed it with it with a hard right cross, then grabbed him by the arm and put him into a judo toss.  
  
Before Jared could land on his back, he twisted in midair and used a nearby tree as a springboard to charge back at Angemon. Suddenly, they upped the speed of their spar and they started throwing hundreds of blows almost to fast to be seen.  
  
The other digi destined and their digimon stood there starring at them in shock as they jumped and dodged each other's punches and kicks. They each caught a punch, then shifted their hands so that they had their fingers interlocked and started to push against each other. They stayed like this for almost a full minute before Jared shot his leg up between their bodies, hitting Angemon under the chin, knocking his head up and back.  
  
As he stumbled back, Jared followed with an uppercut and a hard right cross that knocked Angemon flat on his back, the breath knocked out of him. "Are you all right?" he asked as he knelt next to his digimon.  
  
"I'm fine." Angemon said and held up a hand for Jared to pull him up. As soon as they were back on their feet, Jared said quietly, "Why did I even bother to contact them? With them in the digiworld, it's going to be so much harder. I came here to get away from them and my old life, but now it seems like it's all coming back again."  
  
"You contacted them because this concerns them too. If we could fight this alone, we would have a long time ago. Besides, I think you really missed them." Angemon said as he put an arm around Jared's shoulders.  
  
"What? Why would I miss them? They used and controlled me for years. I was just something to toy with when they were bored and a useful tool when they needed something."  
  
"You know that's not true. When you were first brought to the digi-world, they were just trying to protect you and you kept taking charge of the attacks away from Davis when you guys came back four years later."  
  
"Davis let me take control when he knew that he couldn't handle it. Davis never let anything out of his control unless it was strategically good. He was a lot smarted in the art of fighting than he let on." Jared snapped as he shrugged out from under Angemon's arm and moved away. After a second, he started a complex kata that Angemon willingly joined in.  
  
  
  
inside the house, they couldn't hear what they were saying outside, but a few of the digimon and the digidestined had learned how to read lips over the years. So Angewomon, Wormon, Veemon, Tai, matt, and Mimi saw what was said between the two and were shocked.  
  
"Is that what he really thinks? That we used and controlled him?" Mimi asked quietly, to shocked to even turn away from the window to look at the others.  
  
"But we never controlled him! We only tried to protect him!" Matt exclaimed as he tore his attention away from his brother to look at the others. "I mean, he was only eight years old!"  
  
"I know. We protected him until he proved he could take care of himself by going up against Puppetmon when he was kidnapped, and he escaped after damaging him, too!" Tai exclaimed, then Veemon piped up.  
  
"Davis isn't that smart in a fight to always be in control. Remember the time we ended up chained to that cliff?"  
  
"Hey! I knew what I was doing!" Davis exclaimed. He had been absorbed in watching the duo outside and had only caught the end of what Veemon had been saying.  
  
Ignoring him, Matt continued. "I've never used him. Hell, I barely saw him except for those months in the digiworld. How could he think that about me, about us?"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait! What's going on?!" Davis exclaimed and Yolei slapped the back of his head and snapped, "Pay attention. T…Jared believes that we used and controlled him."  
  
"What?! If anything, he controlled us."  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Matt demanded.  
  
Davis hesitated a moment before muttering, "Never mind."  
  
Matt looked like he wanted to continue, but tai put as hand on his shoulder and said, "As much as I would love to find out what's wrong with TK…uh, I mean Jared, we have to figure out a plan to take care of Chaosmon."  
  
"you're right. We'll continue this later, Davis." Matt said as he turned towards the door. "TK and Angemon should be here for the planning."  
  
  
  
As soon as everyone was seated, Jared said quietly, "If Chaosmon captures you, first, he will put you in a cell until he's ready. Then he will put you in a tank like cylinder and make a clone of you that he can control. When that is complete, he will put you back into the cell ad work on trying to break you to his will. While this is happening, he will send the clone out to pretend to be you to gather information. As it is your clone, it would still be able to control your digimon after it is given your digivice. The clone would also try and get the other digidestined to Chaosmon as well."  
  
"How do you know so much?" Yolei asked.  
  
"One of the digimon guarding me before I was taken to Chaosmon was a chatterbox. Within ten minutes, I had all the details that the guard knew, plus most of his life story. Angemon helped me bust out after I was taken to Chaosmon, but my clone was destroyed." Jared said, not really looking at anybody, but instead looking at his memories.  
  
"Show us your scar." Kari said suddenly.  
  
"My scar?" Jared repeated, his hand going automatically towards his neck though he changed its destination at the last moment to run it through his hair.  
  
"Yes. Genni told us you have a scar from Chaosmon." Kari said. She had caught the motion towards his neck and had he suspicions about where the scar was.  
  
"Forget it. I don't show anyone my scars." He snapped and stood up. He walked over and stood against the wall, away from everyone else.  
  
"how many do you have?" she asked as she stood up as well and walked over to him. She slipped her hand out her pocket and flicked open the switchblade. This close, she could see a couple on his arms as she straightened up from his position against the wall and put one of his fists against his hip.  
  
"None of your business." He snapped. He didn't see the knife until it flashed up and sliced through his shirt. Kari, however, miscalculated and the knife slipped into his flesh, leaving a thin red trail behind.  
  
"What the hell do you think your doing?" he snapped at her as she retracted the blade and spread the two parts of his shirt apart .  
  
After she stepped back, everyone could see that his chest was criss-crossed with at least a dozen scars. Most were small, though there were a couple bigger ones.  
  
"What happened to you?" matt asked, horrified.  
  
"Katana." Jared said, pointing to a long one that crossed his pectoral muscles. "Dagger, throwing stars, bowie knife, tiger like hand claws." He continued, pointing to each one in turn. The last one was four claw like marks that were on the upper left side of his chest, just missing the katana slice.  
  
Turning, he stormed towards his room, ripping what was left of his shirt off, reveling what looked like whip marks across his shoulders and upper back. He stopped at the door to the room and said, "Whip marks from Chaosmon when he tried to break me when he caught me." With that, he disappeared into his room, quietly shutting the door behind him.  
  
  
  
As soon as he was along, Jared sighed and sat on the edge of his bed. He grabbed a first aid kit and quickly cleaned and bandaged the cut. Luckily, it only needed a few butterfly bandages. After he was finished, he gently reached up and removed the massive collar that covered most of his neck. The scar was the reason for his punk appearance with the collar, funky hair, eyes, and the earrings. It made it look like he wore the collar to compliment the rest of his appearance and not the other way around.  
  
The scar was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. In the center of his throat, there was a deep indent that went all the way around his neck and was an inch deep. On both sides of it, there were horribly burn scars that spread out to cover most of his throat.  
  
The flame whip.  
  
That was what had caused the scar.  
  
****************  
  
Flashback  
  
****************  
  
"Thank you for my new friend, TK." A shadowy figure said as it gestured to a TK with blank eyes in a cylinder next to another TK, this one with his eyes snapping in defiance that was in another clear tube. "Now it is time for you to join us."  
  
"Fuck you, Chaosmon. I'll never join you." TK shouted as two Bakemon took him from the tube and started dragging him towards a door. He wrenched his arms away from them and charged towards the open door. Just before he reached it, he heard, "Fame Whip!" right before what felt like a red-hot wire surrounded by fire wrapped around his throat and dug in. The pain was so great that he couldn't scream, couldn't even breathe.  
  
"I'm sorry, but you can't leave yet. You still have to get some modifications." Chaosmon said as he slowly dragged TK backwards, though you still can't see anything about him except his hands, which were cover by pure white gloves.  
  
Suddenly, the wall exploded and Angemon charged in. As soon as he caught sight of what was happening to TK, he threw a Hand of Fate at the shadowy Chaosmon, who let go as a consol exploded, starting a chain reaction that destroyed all the other machines in the room and obliterated TK's clone.  
  
"You haven't seen the last of me!" Chaosmon snarled as he ran from the room. That was the first that time that anyone had seen Chaosmon, and they were surprised. Chaosmon looked like a regular man almost, except his skin was lavender with blue hair that reached past his waist and blue eyes. He was wearing a black skintight outfit that covered everything from his neck down.  
  
"Let's get out of here." Angemon said as he scooped TK into his arms after Chaosmon had disappeared. As they flew away, a huge fireball enveloped the lab, though the fire didn't spread any further than that.  
  
****************  
  
End Flashback  
  
****************  
  
Sighing again, Jared removed the contacts and lay back on the bed, drifting off to sleep after a moment, tired from facing his past.  
  
  
  
"Did you see his back? That must have hurt." Davis said breaking the silence after the door had closed behind Jared.  
  
Matt ignored him and stormed over to Kari. "What the hell were you thinking?! He believes that we used and controlled him and you just reinforced that." He growled, his face barely two inches from hers. "Now, I don't know why you've changed into such an uncaring bitch, but I want you to stay away from my brother. Got it?"  
  
Kari just sneered him, then turned around and sat back on the couch in her seat.  
  
Spinning away, matt marched over to the bedroom door, knocked twice and entered without waiting for an answer. Shutting the door behind him, he said, "TK, I wanted to talk to…" He trailed off as he saw his brother asleep, sprawled out on the bed. With the intent to cover him up with the blanket at the bottom of the bed, Matt approached quietly and reached for the covers. Just as his hand touched the blanket, he saw out of the corner of his eye the color on the nightstand.  
  
Without any interest, he looked over to his brother's neck and gasped in shock. The massive scar almost made him puke as he looked at it. The indent was blackish, as if the attack had cut into his skin while at the same time cauterizing it with it's own heat. The skin around the line looked as though it had been melted, and then twisted.  
  
Bending down, he lightly touched the line in the center, inwardly wincing at the pain TK must have gone through when it had happened. As soon as he touched it, Jared's eyes snapped open and his hand shot out to wrap tightly around matt's wrist.  
  
"What the hell are you doing in here?" he growled as he released Matt's wrist, who pulled it back and rubbed it gently to ease the redness.  
  
"I wanted to talk to you, TK, but when I saw you were sleeping, I was going to cover you up but stopped when I saw the scar. Chaosmon did that, didn't he?" Matt demanded, his voice suddenly cold.  
  
"Don't call me TK and yes he did."  
  
"I'll kill him." Jared was surprised at the cold, hard fury in his brother's voice, then he had to grab Matt's wrist as he turned to storm out of the room.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"To kill Chaosmon."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"He hurt my brother. No one hurts my brother."  
  
"…" Jared stared at Matt for a moment before he sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. "You aren't ready to face him." He said and pulled him down next to him on the bed. "Now what did you wan to talk about?"  
  
"We watched your spar and I saw what you said to Angemon afterwards. How could you think that I, that we used and controlled you? I would never do that and neither would the others." Matt said, hurt.  
  
"My entire life I was used and controlled. Mom used me to hurt dad, just like he used you to hurt her. We didn't get a choice and we barely saw each other until I moved back to Odiba. Then when we went to the digiworld for the first time and all of you controlled if I stood watch, if I could go get water, if I could fight one of the bad guys. The only time I wasn't controlled was when we split up and even then, you told me to stay at the park and then Demidevimon tried to control me.  
  
"Then when Patamon digivolved to Angemon, you guys used me to fight Devimon and all the others. Same with Davis and the new digi-destined." Jared said quietly and Matt sighed.  
  
"We were only trying to protect you. remember, we did the same thing with Kari when she joined us. After you proved to be able to hold your own, we backed off a bit, but we still tried to protect you." Matt said as he looked directly into his brothers blue eyes.  
  
Matt could see the confusion and a deeply buried pain in Jared's eyes and Jared could see love, honesty, and respect in Matt's. "I believe you, but I'm not the same person anymore." Jared said as he wrapped his arms around Matt, who returned the hug whole-heartedly.  
  
"You're still TK no matter what. You're taller, older, defiantly more bitter and certainly very different on the outside, but inside you're still my little brother." Matt said and released him. Standing, he said, "Well, we should talk to the others about Chaosmon."  
  
"I don't want them to find out about this scar. Please don't tell them." Jared said as he grabbed the spiked collar and slipped it on.  
  
"Sure, it'll stay just between us. But could you please leave the contacts out for now? It really creeps me out?" Matt said as he saw Jared reach for the contact case.  
  
"The whole reason I use contacts is because when Chaosmon used the Flame whip on me, it affected my spine, which threw something off in my eyes. It also affected my vocal cords which is why I have a really deep voice now. Anyway, I needed glasses but I hate them. So I got contacts. I have some regular ones though." Jared said as he grabbed a different case from the nightstand.  
  
"Oh." Matt said as he watched Jared put the contacts in his eyes. "I don't think I could put my finger in my eye like that."  
  
"You get used to it." Jared said as they headed for the door. Opening it, Davis, Tai, Izzy, and surprisingly Sora tumbled into the room. Starring down at them, Jared arched a pierced eyebrow and said in a mild voice, "Hear anything interesting?"  
  
"No, we could barely hear any…thing…" Davis trailed off as he realized just what he had just said and to who.  
  
"Every room in this house is partially soundproof." Jared said and left it at that as he walked towards the others.  
  
Turning towards Matt, Tai asked, "So what happened?"  
  
"Mind your own business." Matt said absently as he stared at his brother's back. Turning around, he went back into the bedroom before Tai could do anything besides stare at him in shock. He was back a moment later with another black tank top which he tossed to Jared after catching his attention.  
  
"Thanks bro. " Jared said as he slipped it on. All the girls stared at him as his powerful muscles rippled before they were covered with the shirt. "Now we have to make some plans." He said as he sat down on the couch. Immediately Yolei, Sora, Mimi, and Kari flocked down around him while most of the guys looked on in amusement.  
  
Jared got up quickly and sat in an armchair as far away as he could get from the girls, who almost swooned as they watched Jared's ass as he walked away from them.  
  
After everyone was seated, Genni cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. Once he had it, he said, "All of you will go home and go to your schools or jobs and just come back when you are off. Then we will all work on defeating Chaosmon. Agreed?"  
  
Before anyone had time to nod or say yes, the door burst open to reveal Chaosmon. "Sleep Attack!" he yelled, throwing black power at the stunned group.  
  
They jumped to their feet, but immediately slumped back to the ground as the power put them to sleep. Jared struggled to stay awake as he watched Chaosmon approach them. The digimon stopped in front of him and looked down for a moment, his eyes locking with Jared's.  
  
"Well, well, well. It seems that we meet again." Chaosmon said and watched Jared's eyes close and his head slump back to the ground as he lost the fight against the blackness of the power induced sleep.  
  
"I think it's about time to get you back to the base, my pretties."  
  
  
  
****  
  
TBC 


End file.
